Bodies, flight recorder, recovered from crashed chopper (Roundup)

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday spoke to the IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal N.A.K Browne to express his condolences over Tuesday's helicopter crash in Uttarakhand as rescuers recovered the bodies of most of the 20 victims, as also the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

Browne, who visited the hill state Wednesday, hailed the victims of the crash and said they sustained the rescue mission in the flood-hit areas of Uttarakhand and completed it successfully.

The Indian Air Force chief reached Gauchar, an airbase for rescue operations, in the morning and said the crashed helicopter was carrying 20 personnel including five from the IAF, six from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and nine from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

"We will be able to ascertain the reason for the crash only after analysing the cockpit voice recorder," he said.

Browne said the teams that had gone to the site of crash had reported there were no survivors.

NDRF Inspector General Sandeep Rathore later said bodies of 17 of the crash victims had been recovered.

Browne said commandos had slithered down from a chopper to the crash site and reported that there were no survivors from the group.

He said the crash took place at 2 p.m. Tuesday in an area around Gaurikund when the chopper was returning from Badrinath.

"We owe it to the lives of our people whom we have lost, that we sustain the mission and complete it successfully," Browne said.

"There were actually three helicopters -- one 10 minutes ahead and the other 10 minutes behind," he said.

"They (IAF personnel) are proud to be here and proud to be doing the job. I am extremely happy with the way they are performing," he said.

"It is a marvellous performance not just by our people but also by the ITBP, army and the NDRF."

"We are doing a great job and we need to hang on there. The period will last for another 8-10 days," he added.

Giving details of the rescue operations, the air chief said there were not many people left to be evacuated.

"We have work to be done in the Harsil Valley and Badrinath areas. Two helicopters left Wednesday morning for Badrinath where there are about 3,000-4,000 people. At Harsil, there are 1,000 people left," he said.

The prime minister talked to Browne to condole the death of IAF personnel who died in the helicopter crash.

Manmohan Singh said he had "full confidence in the force and its capability to overcome this tragedy and continue the arduous task in Uttarakhand".

"Your men have done heroic work in treacherous circumstances and saved thousands of lives," the prime minister told Browne.

He said the country was grateful to the armed forces for their selfless and determined efforts in helping the people in the aftermath of the disaster.

The IAF Wednesday continued its rescue and relief operations in flood-hit Uttarakhand.

A C130J aircraft undertook a weather mission in the morning from Hindan for planning further helicopter operations.

The IAF continued to operate from Dharasu and Pithoragarh detachments flying six Mi-17 V5s, two Advanced Light Helicopter and one Mi-17.

The air force had flown 64 sorties and airlifted about 636 people till Wednesday afternoon.

Since the start of "Operation Rahat", the IAF has flown a total of 1,540 sorties, airlifting approximately 13,052 pilgrims and dropping 216,310 kg of relief material and equipment.

Air Force officials said their personnel on the chopper that crashed were: Wg Cdr Darryl Castelino, Flt Lt. K Praveen, Flt Lt Tapan Kapoor, JWO A.K. Singh and Sgt Sudhakar Yadav.

The NDRF listed names of nine of its personnel who were on board the helicopter. They were: Commandant Nitya Nand Gupta, 48, resident of Kanpur; Inspector Bhim Singh, 49, resident of Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir; Sub Inspector Satish Kumar, 44, resident of Bhiwani in Haryana; Constable K. Vinaygan, 28, resident of Chitoor in Andhra Pradesh; Constable Bassavaraj Yaragatti, 31, resident of Gadag in Karnataka; Constable Santosh Kumar Paswan, 24, resident of Koderma in Jharkhand; Constable Sanjiva Kumar, 27, resident of Balia in Uttar Pradesh; Constable Shashi Kant Ramesh Pawar, 31, resident of Dhulia in Maharashtra; and Constable Ahir Rao Ganesh, 32, resident of Jalgaon in Maharashtra.

The six ITBP personnel on board the helicopter were: Commandant Nand Ram, 27, Sub Inspector Jayender Prasad, 55, Constable Jomon P.G., 26, Constable Bibhuti Roy, 26, Constable Sarvesh Kumar, 31, and Constable Ajay Lal, 23.